The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to recruit university Vice Chancellors who have displayed partisanship in the past as Returning Officers.
The party also insisted that names of all electoral officers at all levels must be made public ahead of the elections.
This, it said, would enable all stakeholders to assess the neutrality of such officers in their respective constituencies.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated this at a press conference on Thursday.
While calling on Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the electoral body to ensure that the process of appointing electoral officers is transparent, the party maintained that Amina Zakari, Chairman of the National Collation Centre, must resign her position.
He said: “We invite the INEC Chairman to note that we are aware that Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Muhammadu Buhari’s relation by marriage in INEC, is already coordinating compromised lecturers and other partisan individuals that will pander to her ploys to manipulate the Presidential election.
“The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation therefore demands that the process must be checked and conducted with strict compliance with the assurances of the INEC Chairman, that it will be credible and transparent.
“It is important to state that our party is not in the arena of conflict with INEC but as a political party and critical stakeholder in the 2019 elections, we have the responsibility to point out pitfalls that can endanger the electoral process and lead to a slide into chaos.
“The PPCO notes that since the INEC Chairman, has said that Mrs. Amina Zakari has no role in the collation of results, we consequently restate our demand that she be exempted from any form of electoral role in this elections.
“Already, the public space is filled with the insistence that, given the confession by President Muhammadu Buhari that Mrs. Amina Zakari is his relation by marriage, she must, as a matter of necessity, be exempted from any electoral function in order to avert a conflict of interest bordering on partisanship”.
He charged the United Nations, European Union and all democratic institutions across the world to appeal to the INEC Chairman to exempt Zakari from the exercise in the interest of peace.
He warned that the party will not accept anything short of free, fair and credible election.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
